Max Verstappen reflects on Belgian GP delay: “Sometimes safety is in the driver’s hands”

Max Verstappen has aired his thoughts on the FIA's approach to the rain-affected Belgian Grand Prix event. The 27-year-old, during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, stressed the governing body's handling made it less ‘fantastic’ than it should have been.

The Ardennes Forest event was delayed for 80 minutes following the formation lap, with the drivers’ visibility and other safe concerns cited as the main reasons behind the delay. However, when quizzed about what can be done to reduce the spray from the 2025 cars in subsequent instances ahead of the start of the Budapest race weekend, Verstappen stressed how things could have been managed differently.

Sharing his thoughts with the media, including GPblog, the four-time world champion stated:

“Well, this year's car there isn't much that you can do now. I mean it generates so much of a cloud from the diffuser already."

“Yeah, it has a lot more spray than the older cars, for example. Also with these big tires, there's a lot more water coming off them. I said it after the Spa, I mean, the Silverstone was probably on the edge, take it a little bit safer, but then this for me was too safe.”

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Max Verstappen on how drivers can avoid a crash in the rain

Max Verstappen further detailed how drivers can avoid collisions and crashes during weather-affected events. Sharing his thoughts, he continued:

“On the other hand, when there's a lot of spray and you can't see a lot, you can also lift, and you can also make a bigger gap if you're not sure where you're going. This is something that most of the time when you have big accidents is when people are not lifting, when they can't really see, and they keep it pinned basically because they think the people in front of them or behind them do that as well. But yeah, it's complicated.”

“Some drivers will say the opposite to what I say and that's fine, everyone has their own opinion. I just look at it as a proper race. Because I think Spa could have been a fantastic rain race. We all look back at it in the past in Formula 1, you had these great wet races.”

“I feel like it's very rare that we get these kind of races nowadays. Of course I understand safety but sometimes also as a driver, it's in your hands if you can keep it safe or not. And if you can only keep it safe in almost dry conditions, then that's something that we have to look at.”